Genesis 9:2

Summary

Genesis 9:2 declares that fear and dread of humans will fall upon every animal, bird, creeping creature, and fish, and that these creatures are given into human hands. It follows the flood narrative and extends the relationship between humans and animals established in Genesis 1.

Key words

• mo.ra.'a.khem ("your fear", H4172A + H9026) — masculine singular noun in construct form with a 2nd person masculine plural suffix, meaning "the fear that belongs to you" or "fear of you."
• chi.te.khem ("your dread", H2844A + H9026) — parallel construct noun with the same pronominal suffix, paired with the previous word to intensify the idea of terror.
• yih.Yeh ("it will be", H1961) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular, expressing a future or ongoing state; grammatically singular even though it governs two subject nouns (mo.ra.'a.khem and chi.te.khem).
• tir.Mos ("it creeps", H7430) — qal imperfect, third person feminine singular, agreeing with the feminine noun ha.'a.da.Mah ("the ground", H0127G), describing creatures that move upon the ground.
• ni.Ta.nu ("they are given", H5414G) — niphal (passive) perfect, third person plural, indicating a completed passive action: the animals "have been given" into human hands.

What the text says

The verse is built on two main clauses. The first clause has a compound subject — mo.ra.'a.khem ("your fear") and chi.te.khem ("your dread") — both construct nouns carrying the same second-person plural suffix, followed by a single verb yih.Yeh ("it will be") in the third masculine singular. This grammatical pattern, where a singular verb governs two coordinated nouns, is common in Biblical Hebrew and does not indicate that only one noun is truly the subject; both nouns are treated as one composite idea when introducing the object clause with 'al ("on/upon", H5921A).

The scope of this fear is defined through a series of construct chains: kol chai.Yat ha.'A.retz ("every animal of the earth"), kol 'of ha.sha.Ma.yim ("every bird of the heavens"), and kol de.Gei ha.Yam ("every fish of the sea"). Each construct phrase links "every/all" (kol, H3605) to a following noun, producing a chain of categories rather than isolated items. A relative clause, 'a.Sher tir.Mos ha.'a.da.Mah ("that creeps [on] the ground"), uses the feminine verb tir.Mos to agree with ha.'a.da.Mah ("the ground"), describing creeping animals distinct from the birds, land animals, and fish already named.

The final clause, be.yed.khem ni.Ta.nu ("into your hand they are given"), uses the niphal perfect ni.Ta.nu, marking a completed passive action: the animals are the grammatical subject of "being given," with the human hand as the location into which this giving occurs.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the two Hebrew nouns mo.ra.'a.khem ("your fear") and chi.te.khem ("your dread") as ὁ τρόμος ὑμῶν ("the trembling of you") and ὁ φόβος ("the fear"), preserving two terms but in different order and with slightly different semantic range. The Vulgate similarly uses terror and tremor, matching the double-noun structure of the Hebrew. The LXX and Vulgate both render the passive verb ni.Ta.nu ("they are given") with an active or first-person construction — the LXX has δέδωκα ("I have given," first person singular), shifting the grammatical subject from the animals to God as agent, whereas the Hebrew niphal keeps the animals as the subject of a passive verb without naming the giver explicitly.